Seeing some of the other winter project threads has inspired me to document my track bike mods. I purchased the 02 RC51 last fall and it was completely stock except for the following: Penske shock, forks worked by GP Suspension, track bodywork, SS front brake lines and Leo Vince slipons.
Last fall I removed the PAIR system, removed the soft rev limiter and removed the extra flapper equipment (flapper had been plugged, but was still on the bike). Both the Pair blockoff plates from TPO Parts and the soft rev kit from Scotts Motorcycle Service worked as advertised. Here's a pic of how it looked on the track last fall:
The main goals for the winter were to clean up the dings from a lowside, make the RC lighter, get a little more interesting paint scheme.
I took care of a bent stock handlebar by installing some shiny new Vortex clipons from KneeDraggers, along with some Renthal grips and a HRC 1/6 turn throttle tube.
The grips were easy enough to get on with some rubbing alcohol and the Vortex clipons are certainly lighter than stock. I still need to adjust the position of the new clipons so I stop hitting the kill switch on the fairing during slow speed sharp turns. The tires that came with the bike were pretty much shagged too, so I went with some Pirelli Diablo Rosso's for now. I wanted them to last a while, and I haven't done enough track days yet to where I'm going to need stickier tires.
So probably the biggest completed mod so far was the just completed install of the Turnone airbox:
The install took a while, but wasn't too bad. I had to expand the main fuel line hole with a dremel, so I may need to seal it up a little bit better. Other than the airbox fit perfectly, I can't believe how much lighter it is when compared to the OEM one. The biggest scare came when I thought I had dropped a screw down a throttle body opening, luckily I had not.
"Exercise restraint and discipline, only responding to posts from legit customers and those with constructive positive intent, you will find that the handgrenades explode harmlessly. You have many satisfied customers who are happy to have the parts you've made. My suggestion to you is keep making good parts, keep getting more customers, take care of them and let them speak for you."
The million dollar question is one only you know the answer to right now.
What is the plan (specifically) for your bikes next fews steps?
Sure you bought a bike that I would say is well set up but.....
I would recomend chopping the subframe
relocating the battery (and switching to a MUCH smaller battery (speedcell)
wire harness maod to shed some serious weight
new wheels and rotors
and buy all means roll your kill switch towards you a bit so that doesnt happen any more
The million dollar question is one only you know the answer to right now.
What is the plan (specifically) for your bikes next fews steps?
Sure you bought a bike that I would say is well set up but.....
I would recomend chopping the subframe
relocating the battery (and switching to a MUCH smaller battery (speedcell)
wire harness maod to shed some serious weight
new wheels and rotors
and buy all means roll your kill switch towards you a bit so that doesnt happen any more
Subframe chop is on the todo list, but is waiting until I'm using a race tail, not the stock unit. (Have to attach that little cover piece somehow.)
Speedcell battery is planned, probably not going to worry about relocating it though. I want to get to get wiring, but electrical stuff like that makes me nervous. It is annoying to have all the extra wire in the way while I'm working on the bike though, so it'll all go eventually.
New wheels? I have a Hi-Point AL rear ready to swap out and I may look for a new front at some point, but probably not for quite a while. New front rotors? Maybe, no immediate plans because the mods will slow down a bit over the summer, hoping to get a decent amount of track days in this year.
While I had the airbox and tank off, I figured it was a good time to swap out the spark plugs. I went with the stock NGK IFR9H11, which seemed like a better idea before I realized they cost almost $20 each at the dealership. The old plugs look ok to me, just a little dirty/worn, probably wasn't a bad time to change them out. What suprised me was that they were Bosch Platinum +4 plugs, possibly the 4417 model. I guess the previous owner didn't like the cost of the NGKs either.
I'm planning on removing the ignition/key requirement at some point, so I picked up a black aluminum spin type gas cap off eBay. Installed easy, build quality looks fine.
"Bosch 4417 Platinum +4" is what they are called here in the US. They looked about the right size and the bike seemed to run ok, but I'd rather just stick with the stock NGK even with their cost.
"Bosch 4417 Platinum +4" is what they are called here in the US. They looked about the right size and the bike seemed to run ok, but I'd rather just stick with the stock NGK even with their cost.
Quick question, Im lookin to get those same grips and I just got some Vortex clips just (havnt seen them yet) what size grips do these clip ons take?
I picked up the Renthal grips off eBay, I think they're just regular motorcycle grips, no need to specify size. (I'm pretty sure almost all clipons have the same size bar.)
I found out for sure my first track day is in May instead of April, so now I have even more time to get the bike ready. The levers on the bike were mismatched and the end of one was partly ground down, so I replaced them with cheap pair of black stock knock-offs. They look like they will work fine and now I have the old ones as spares.
I mounted up the Highpoint rear wheel I had and it's looking pretty good. Should be a couple pounds lighter, and has 30k miles less on it too. It looks pretty sweet and came with a new rear rotor as well. Here's a comparison of the old and new wheels, as well as one all mounted up on the bike:
The airbox is back off the bike, I'm going to use the extra time to get rid of some of the wiring, like the rats nest up by the snorkel:
With the airbox out of the way, I'm planning on removing the lighting/signal/fan wiring, maybe eliminating the ignition if I get to it. It'll also give me chance to install the power commander that arrived. Doing the wiring is isn't too exciting, so I'm not sure I'll have too many updates/pics until that's done.
Can i make 1 suggestion since your bike is a straight track bike? Get ASAP a cast brembo brake master (fairly inexpensive) and a set of HRC pads, trust me you will thank me later. Good luck on the build
The wiring is all cleaned up, I removed all the extra connectors for lights, signals, horn and fans, as well as the turn signal and fan relays. Wiring in the PC3r was easier while the airbox was off and the entire wiring harness was pretty much exposed. PC3r seems to be working, loaded a map for a similar system to mine, which should be adequate until I can get some dyno time for a custom one.
Once the wiring was pretty much done, I installed the new exhaust, a 2:1 Jardine header (from an exhaust swap with floridarx7) and a stainless motogp canister from mrgrn. Not only is it way cooler looking now, I no longer have a cracked header. Fired it up and ran it for a minute or so
and it runs, so everything appears to be working. It's definitely loud, it'll be fun to take it out and open it up.
The bike came with a nice billet shock reservoir mounting bracket, so I've moved it from the back right of the tail section to left side in front of where the passenger peg would be.
My Track Bike Updates/Progress/Pics Thread
Linear Mode
